Posts Tagged ‘fiction’
Travel by Star
I read Travel by Star, by Paul Scott Grill, and I’m giving it my first five-star review. Now, what does that mean, “five stars?” For our purposes here, the scale is this: Three stars is a book you could miss and not miss anything. Four is a book you should read. Five is a book…
Read MoreThe Sapphire Prince
I read “The Sapphire Prince” by Casey West, and it was cute. It also gives me a chance to talk about two subjects which have been on my mind lately. First, the story itself. Book 1 of the “Loyalty Fallen” series (everything’s a series, these days, and I’m just as guilty), here we have a…
Read MoreJustified
I read Justified by @jondelarroz, and I enjoyed it. Mr. Del Arroz has taken an interesting approach: Crusaders vs Jihadis in Space, and he does not pull his punches, nor adulterate his characters or plot with any anachronistic cultural self-castigation or other idiosyncrasies of our real modern West. The protagonist does suffer a crisis of…
Read MoreThe Water War
I read The Water War (Episode 1) by @ShirleyJwriter, and I enjoyed it. Ms. Johnson’s approach to the peri-apocalypse/fall-of-America genre is delightfully character-centered, and tightly focused on its ordinary folk. Rather than spending any time on the big movers and shakers, any reasons behind the events in question or powerful people exerting any influence over…
Read MoreReliquary of the Dead
I read Reliquary of the Dead by @DrDavidAFalk. Overall a delightful novel, and also one that gives me an excuse to talk about two potential pitfalls in fiction writing. The first is that specialists in any field other than fiction writing tend not to make very good fiction writers. They tend to be didactic regarding…
Read MoreForgotten Ruin
This love-letter to the U. S. Army Rangers is, if shameless, also delightful, and if you like hard military action but you’re also a nerd, you should read it. Find it here.
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